We are 'shocked that a "moderate" regime like Bahrain's would kill its own people ...'

"... Some foreign observers like the influential New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof appear to be shocked that a "moderate" regime (his word) like Bahrain's would kill its own people. They shouldn't be. The ruling Khalifa family, like Qaddafi, is engaged in the sort of existential struggle that Egypt and Tunisia's powerbrokers didn't face; while Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali may be out of power, the officers and political architecture that supporter their rules remain intact, at least for now. But the odds that the Khalifas will preserve a powerful role for themselves in Bahrain in the face of true democracy are small. They appear to be acting accordingly. In the early morning Thursday, riot police stormed a democracy encampment at Pearl Square in Manama, Bahrain's capital – an encampment set up in emulation of Cairo's Tahrir Square. The police fired shot guns and rubber bullets, killing five and dispersing protesters..."